Books and babies: clinical-based literacy programs.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to assess parental response to a clinic-based literacy program at a health maintenance organization. It was hypothesized that participation would be associated with increased literacy orientation by children. METHOD: This randomized community trial took place at a Midwestern health maintenance organization. Six clinics were paired and randomly assigned to participate or not participate in Project Read. The main outcome variable was literacy orientation (book use). The target population was parents of children younger than 12 months (N = 165). After 6 months of participation, parents were surveyed by telephone. RESULTS: Seventy-five percent and 77% of the treatment and control groups, respectively, had positive literacy orientation; this difference was not significant. Persons receiving a videotape were more likely to have a positive literacy orientation (82.9% vs 69.2%; P <.05). The multivariate regression analyses also showed that receiving the free videotape was a significant intervention exposure. DISCUSSION: The members of the population in this study are reading to their children. Parents who receive a videotape on the importance of reading are likely to read more to their children.